American Indians: “Redskins” Team Name Not Offensive

All the politically correct types are demanding that the Washington Redskins change the name of their team. It’s “offensive,” they say.

But a new Washington Post polls says otherwise.

The headline says “New poll finds 9 in 10 Native Americans aren’t offended by Redskins name.”

The race hustlers claiming to represent the Indians reacted badly.

But Suzan Harjo, the lead plaintiff in the first case challenging the team’s trademark protections, dismissed the Post’s findings.

“I just reject the results,” said Harjo, 70, who belongs to the Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee tribes. “I don’t agree with them, and I don’t agree that this is valid way of surveying public opinion in Indian Country.”

But the Post explained:

Across every demographic group, the vast majority of Native Americans say the team’s name does not offend them, including 80 percent who identify as politically liberal, 85 percent of college graduates, 90 percent of those enrolled in a tribe, 90 percent of non-football fans and 91 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 39.

Even 9 in 10 of those who have heard a great deal about the controversy say they are not bothered by the name.

What makes those attitudes more striking: The general public appears to object more strongly to the name than Indians do.

In a 2014 national ESPN poll, 23 percent of those reached called for “Redskins” to be retired because of its offensiveness to Native Americans — more than double the 9 percent of actual Native Americans who now say they are offended by it.

A 2013 Post poll found that a higher proportion of Washington-area residents — 28 percent — wanted the moniker changed.

An earlier Annenberg poll which showed the same result was attacked on the grounds that respondents classified themselves as “Native American.” Maybe they weren’t really, the race hustlers said.

(Interestingly, these are the same people who say that a man can be a woman if he just calls himself a woman. But apparently a white person can’t decide to be an Indian.)

But the current survey not only shows overwhelming majorities of Indians enrolled in a tribe are not offended, it shows 91 percent who live on or near tribal land say they are not offended.

This is just another case where the politically correct hustlers fail to represent the groups they claim to represent. Thus, women are as likely to oppose abortion as are men, feminists to the contrary. Blacks are likely to favor “quality of life” policing (which jumps on small offenses) and a clear majority of blacks believe the courts are “not harsh enough” on criminals.

Likwise, the black race hustlers go ballistic when people say “all lives matter” rather than “black lives matter.” But black people nationwide say they prefer “all lives matter.”

Honesty in any discussion of policy requires calling out the race (and gender) hustlers.